★
The gang is back but the game has changed. As they return to rescue one of their own, the players will have to brave parts unknown from arid deserts to snowy mountains, to escape the world's most dangerous game.
Classification: 12A
The gang is all back but the game has definitely not changed as Jake Kasdan's sequel to the surprise holiday hit of 2017 is a lazy, uninspired rehash of every idea that made the first film feel fresh. Long strenuous exposition dumps, awkward performances as Dwayne Johnson and Jack Black uncomfortably imitate a cranky old Jewish man and a black teenager, and further complications from redundant plot threads and characters. Basically The Hangover Part II of Jumanji movies, Kasdan takes the screenplay from the preceding film, scribbles out 'jungle' on the scene heading and write in 'desert' as The Next Level laboriously does every scene and joke over again in new locations. It's not even remotely close to clever commentary on the repetitive nature of sequels to comedy films or video games, it's just another big blockbuster failure at having their cake and eating it too as Kasdan and Johnson think that the success from Welcome to the Jungle will just bleed over to this film, no assembly required.
The most frustrating and disheartening thing to Jumanji: The Next Level is the small nuggets of potential that are either misused entirely or abandoned in favour of stranger and less entertaining elements. The hook to this sequel is that when our now college student protagonists are sucked back into the game to track down Alex Wolff's Spencer who has voluntarily returned to the mystical oasis, their characters get all mixed up. One of the joys from the 2017 film was the chemistry of the cast but this time changing the stars' personalities have mixed results especially when you throw in Danny Devito and Danny Glover to the mix as two elders who also are transported inside the game. Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson is now hard of hearing, senile and has no idea what's going on in a poor Devito impression that goes on way too long, this shake-up never properly lands and it just feels awkward until the film finally decides for Johnson to act like himself again. Kevin Hart on the other hand by channelling Glover delivers a delightfully amusing performance that saves much of the films long embarrassing sequences with a well-timed one-liner, oddly enough by pretending to be another actor and not relying on usual repertoire, Hart finds himself at new comedic heights.
Karen Gillan is left relatively unharmed bar one extremely tone-deaf scene where Ser'Darius Blain's character "Fridge" gains control of her avatar leading to a very uncomfortable scene of Gillan jumping around and doing a tasteless impression of a black teenager. Gillian's character, however, is the most consistent performance taking on a greater leadership position and continuing to kick ass where it counts. Unfortunately the same can not be said for Jack Black, whose performance as middle-aged man avatar controlled by the mind of a popular high school girl is one of the comedic highlights of the first film. Here he is seriously let down as he becomes the avatar for Fridge and Black also does another uncomfortable impression of Hart's performance from 2017. That's one of the "new" tricks to the film is that the avatars keep switching due to magical water, so the returning cast along with Awkwafina and a black stallion gets to act out a few awkward comedy scenes as different characters. Eventually, everyone is put back to normal for a lacklustre third act but it leaves the most interesting character arcs, Johnson as Devito and Hart as Glover upended and reduced to cheap comedy even if Awkwafina does Devito a hell of a lot better.
Jumanji: The Next Level attempts to tap further into the power fantasies of video games have again mixed results as the films emotional throughlines revolve around the insecurities of the characters being bolstered by the avatars. Spencer reenters the dangers of Jumanji to recapture that confidence by being Johnson's Bravestone as his anxieties and self-doubt over himself have alienated himself from his friend's group. This idea of being the hero, the meta notion of becoming "The Rock" clumsily passes over with Devito's Grandpa Eddie as in brief instances the confusion will pass and Bravestone steps up to the plate but it's more in service of having Johnson do something "badass" than speak to character evolution. Kasdan goes for the most obvious routes for Spencer to reconcile with himself and his friends but nothing about the film feels emotionally fresh or satisfying as the one potential storyline is reduced to a joke. Hart and Johnson's elderly double act while strenuous at points does lead to the one genuine emotional moment of the film of two old friends reconnecting and finding a new lease on life through their riotous adventure. Their character's youth has been reinvigorated by their magical avatars and it allows the actors especially Hart to provide some brief depth to the storyline. It becomes obvious what routes Devito and Glover's characters are going to take but again Kasdan convolutes it all with tired repetition of old ideas and bizarre imagery.
The basic structure of the story and action sequences play out exclusively beat for beat as the previous film in a way that just has you groan from the laziness. It's really rough watching Gillan and Black spout the exact same expository dialogue multiple times and recreate similar scenes such as the "character attributes". Moving from an opening action scene of being chased, then going to a settlement encountering mysterious characters while solving a riddle and then escaping from the bad guys with the help of a new player character, The Next Level is a frustrating photocopy that thinks the few gimmicks tacked on would distract the audience from the utter lack of narrative creativity. The action sequences seem larger in scale but without the same tangible emotional connection to the characters, everything just feels lost in translation as the main cast with the exception of Gillan is playing completely different iterations of themselves. Yes, Johnson gets the opportunity to act a little goofier for most of the runtime but his character's emotional journey is shifted twice along with the rest of the cast bar Nick Jonas who again like the first film just feels completely out of place. The final results of the avatar switching are less a great comedic showcase of the ensemble (it isn't except for Hart and Awkwafina) and more of tangled bewilderment of character arcs leaving the film shallow and deeply flawed made worse by the obvious plagiarizing.
It's more of the same and what felt so fresh and original is now stale and lifeless, Jumanji: The Next Level is a film collapsing in on itself from sequelitis as it takes everything from the first film, does it again and tries to pretend that it didn't; it's not clever it's just stupid. Perhaps if you hadn't seen Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle the initial premise, story and action beats may still entertain you but the flaws in the character development and performances are still prevalent. No new ideas on the video game formula, the new characters are uninspired, Awkwafina as incredibly funny and talented as she is feels misused by the confused script but even the returning ones don't really get their moment to shine like before. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle was a surprise hit because miraculously it managed to take a known property and do something different with it, the final result was still a standard action-adventure comedy but it wasn't an embarrassing disaster. The expectations for that film were low but after their initial success, Kasdan and Johnson don't seem to realise that the bar has now been raised, unfortunately for them and the audience lightning doesn't strike the same place twice. Leaving us with a flat, lifeless sequel that kills the momentum of this franchise, bloated by lazy storytelling and flawed performances.
Director: #JakeKasdan
Cast: #DwayneJohnson, #JackBlack, #KevinHart, #KarenGillan, #NickJonas, #Awkwafina, #AlexWolff, #MorganTurner, #SerDariusBlain, #MadisonIseman, #DannyGlover, #DannyDeVito
Release Date: December 11th 2019
Trailer:
Written review copyright ©CoreyBullochReviews
Images and Synopsis from the Internet Movie Database
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